Italian Tuesday at Facebook Study Group explores Fontina Val d’Aosta DOP with ACS CCP® Adam Burstein:
It is Italian Tuesday time!!! Today’s cheese is fontina Val D’Aosta.
Fontina Val D’Aosta is a DOP cheese made in the Aosta valley right near the border of Switzerland and France. It dates back to the 12th century.
It is made with raw milk from the valdaostana breed of cows. The cows spend a lot of their time on the lower parts of the valley during the colder months, but come spring time they start to move up the mountain. The cows get all the way to about 6.500 feet in elevation. The vegetation the cows are able to graze on so high in the mountain helps give the wheels made during these month a little more earthy and nutty flavor.
The raw milk is heated to 97 F. Then calf rennet is added and after a brief resting the milk is cut into curds. It is then cooked at 118 F for an hour. Now the cheese goes into round molds and is pressed for 12 hours to press out as much way as possible. Over the next month the cheese is salted and flipped one day and the following day it is brushed with brine and flipped. Once that process is over it gets aged for a minimum of three months, but can be aged for up to nine months.
There is a lot of imitation fontina made, so make sure and look for the DOP seal.
http://www.cheese.com/fontina-val-daosta/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontina
http://www.academiabarilla.com/the-italian-food-academy/traditional-cheese/fontina.aspx
THIS JUST IN: THANKS TO THE GENEROSITY OF SO MANY IN OUR CHEESE COMMUNITY, OUR FIRST ACS CCP EXAM® HAS BEEN FULLY FUNDED!! Plus we are 50% toward funding a second scholarship for an ACS CCP® to attend the ACS Conference in Denver.
Our Facebook Cheese Study Group is raising funds to send worthy ACS CCP exam® candidates and ACS CCPs® who want to attend the 2017 ACS Conference in Denver, Cheese With Altitude. You can apply for a scholarship by clicking hereand you can contribute to the scholarship fund by clicking here. All monies raised (withe the exception of the fees charged by GoFundMe) go to the winners of the scholarship. everyone involved in the scholarship efforts is donating their time and receiving NO fees or monetary compensation… just the feeling of helping those who need our help. Complete rules and information can be found here.
Applications must be submitted by 5pm April 15th.
Follow me on:
You must be logged in to post a comment.